We humans are a funny bunch of social creatures. We are not machines who can just change our emotions at will. And one of the things we crave almost as much, if not more so, than food is human connection.

A hug or a hand on someone else’s is the simplest yet most profound act of showing love and compassion. It can instantly transform our mental and emotional states. In just one moment, it communicates to someone that they are not alone, that someone is there for them.

In this article, I’ll talk more about the power of touch and how to use it to help others and ourselves.

The greatest gift we can give anyone is not jewelry, or flowers, or a new MacBook Pro. It is to simply give our attention — our full, complete, 100% attention.

To allow someone else to become a part of you. To allow their space to be, without judgment or labels, but with total acceptance. This is what true healing is all about.

In a world of attention deficit and constant distractions, it’s even more valuable to just be with someone. You don’t have to say the right thing.

Simply spending time with someone is the most wonderful thing you can do. That’s why they call it pay attention and spend time because it’s more priceless than any gift.

The act of sharing that space, putting a hand on their hand, embracing in a hug, allowing your two hearts to get within an inch of each other, to find that beat in unison, to breathe in the same pattern as naturally happens, that is where love lives.

We can give love and healing. Each and every one of us is a mystical healer. We each can do this for one another. It’s simply that warm hug that is selfless, where you’re just transferring your energy to that person, saying with your body and energy, I am here for you.

This is the greatest act of love there is. How many world leaders and dictators are simply acting out because they lacked warmth, touch, and love? The heat our bodies and hands give off is our own energy.

There is an energy convergence, this is real. This is what energy is: radiating heat, light, and love that can be felt simply through the act of touch. To look into someone’s eyes and have photons firing back and forth between you, simultaneously connecting to each other’s brains and creating a vision of the other in your minds.

This is what happens when we sit with somebody. We are taking them into our own mind and our own heart, and they, us. There is a merging that takes place, a oneness that can be felt so greatly and so powerfully as we sit in silence with another person, as we listen to anything they need to say and they to us.

There’s a Buddhist meditation anyone can do, where you sit with someone else and simply stare into their eyes for an extended period of time.

At first, it feels awkward and weird, and you want to look away. But as you break through that barrier, there is a great sense of the two becoming one. Ego dissolves. Selfishness dissolves. And what remains is a powerful connection that is truly healing and transformative, in ways that meditating alone sometimes never can be. It’s a powerful practice for anyone: friends, relatives, life partners.

Just as when we think, we think one word at a time, and when we speak, we speak one word at a time. This form of communication is very limited. One word at a time is not a lot of information.

But when we feel, when we sense, we can take in thousands, even millions, of sense perceptions all at once. We can tune into this deeper wisdom and share it with another person. We can truly commune with their soul and get an essence of their being far more effectively than through our normal mode of communication.

So do not be afraid to sit with someone. Do not be afraid of silence. Do not feel the need to always fill it.

Because simply being there for someone, being with someone, and giving them all of your being, and allowing them to give you theirs, is the most powerful, healing, and transformative experience we can have.